GOP puts ‘Drill, baby, drill!’ slogan out to pasture — in favor of ‘All of the above’?

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The phrase Republican hordes chanted in the closing weeks of last fall’s election season — “Drill, baby, drill!” — has now run dry, party leaders say, and the GOP is looking for a new slogan. Gov. Tim Pawlenty pleaded with Republicans in Congress for something else to attract straying voters, Politico reports: ”‘Drill, baby, drill’ is a great slogan, but it’s not enough. We need to identify with emerging issues and get ahead of them.”

The leading contender for an energy-issues message: the versatile “All of the Above.”

Politico discovered that it’s been months since Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin used her former pet phrase, coined by Michael Steele, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, and debuted at the party’s national convention last September in St. Paul. (Norm Coleman used the term on Nov. 11: “I don’t think anybody … rejected the drill-baby-drill mantra.”)

But Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, envisions a revival. And in the meantime, he’s pushing “Drill here. Drill now. Pay less.”

A specialist in branding sees it more as an epitaph. “‘Drill, baby, drill’ is essentially shorthand for the failures of the Republican Party,” says Rob Frankel. “It was big because it was simplistic. And it was so hip to say. But the phrase means nothing. People need to know why they should care.”